


Together

by Maxdowt



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 10:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16574426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maxdowt/pseuds/Maxdowt
Summary: Sometimes, you just need to talk about what things are.Idk man, relationship stuff. A practice in dialogue lead by voice rather than indicator.





	Together

She was in the Hall.

Her auburn hair looked even more red under the low lighting, her eyes burned like lyrium regardless of her actual technical ability to use magic. Her face was curled into a barely controlled snarl.

She was in the Hall and she was very angry about something.

She was really something else when she was angry.

He sauntered through the Hall, a good head taller than even the tallest in the room. Even without the horns, it would be very difficult to miss The Iron Bull.

And she stood there, small and angry and doing just that, her small frame coiled and ready to strike whoever was in front of her. She had a small stature, broad shoulders with taut muscles, and two fists clenched so that they looked like they should be holding two daggers hilt deep into the other person’s frame.

As he walked over, he saw her tense…

And release. 

A good trick, something he had taught her. 

The Inquisitor was now staring those daggers she probably wished she was holding into the gentleman in front of her. An Orlesian sort, with a mask and the stature of someone whose spine had been replaced with a long iron rod. The man’s mask didn’t hide the fact that he was very uncomfortable and most likely very glad that leader of the Inquisition was not holding her weapons.

Bull was now within earshot of the two. The dwarven Inquisitor was speaking in a low, even tone, annunciating each and every word. Even if he couldn’t have heard the conversation, he would have been able to catch the gist of it with how precisely her lips moved.

“You are not owed an explanation for matters pertaining to my private life.”

“Well, Inquisitor, I believe who you choose to-”

“My choices are mine to make. For all matters that affect the Inquisition, I refer to my advisors and the inner circle, you may ask them for the reasoning. But my life, my choices, these are wholly mine and you are owed nothing of them.”

Bull was now closer, close enough that he could have brushed her with his fingertips from an arms’ length away, but it seemed that she was so focused on the man in front of her that she hadn’t registered his presence. Tunnel vision, he thought. He’d have to relay that to her, she would find the wordplay humorous. 

The man in front of her was also preoccupied with the fiery dwarven woman in front of him, but his mask obscured the tall Qunari. Yet another reason that Bull could never understand the reason for the silly things.

It was strange how the whole room was so loud, yet this quiet conversation had his entire attention. A dwarven man stood up on a tall ladder, chiselling into stone and laughing at a joke said by someone below him. A gaggle of Orlesian ladies chatted to the side, tittering behind their masks and gloves. Varric sat by the fire, writing what probably should have been ledgers for the guild, but were most likely manuscripts for a new novel. Josephine started out of her office with papers before realizing that she had left something, making a mad rush back through the door.

But Bull’s eyes were on her. Inquisitor Melody Cadash. The soft curl of her hair against her neck, the stiff brow. 

“Inquisitor, do understand, the Orlesian court simply wishes to discuss your potential connection to the Qun due to your…”

The calm facade nearly slipped. She was tense again.

“Due to my what?”

“Your...relationship with a certain Qunari in your court, if it can even be called a relationship.”

Bull’s eye widened. The Orlesian was talking about him, perhaps trying to confirm the rumors that had sprung up ever since they had started seeing each other.

“I would call what we have a relationship,” she said, “and I would call these...concerns of yours forward and rude. You are not only questioning my own decisions, but also the loyalty of someone who abandoned his own people when given a decision that went against his own personal ideals. Someone who chose to be here and who chooses to stand by and for the Inquisition.”

“Ah, is he really Tal Va-”

“And someone who is standing right here now.”

The Orlesian’s head turned so quickly that it was a wonder that it didn’t snap off. The Orlesian started to stammer but was interrupted by Melody grabbing Bull by the hand, her own hand so small compared to his. Her grip was strong. She wanted to get out. He wouldn’t stop her.

She all but dragged the large man behind her, warranting a couple of glances, but nothing more. Nobody stopped her. She looked like how fire felt, bright and quick. He let himself be dragged all the way past the throne, through the door, up the stairs (he went a little slower here, her legs so much shorter than his), all the way to her own personal quarters. 

She finally let go of him, pushing her hair back and pacing across her carpet. He sat down on the edge of the bed, a larger piece of furniture than what had occupied the room before they had started spending more time together.

“I’m sorry,” she huffed, releasing some of the tension she held in her shoulders, “I’m sorry, you know how I get when...And of course he was…”

“Orlesian,” they both said together. It made her chuckle.

“If it’s easier, you don’t have to say anything,” he suggested. He did know how she could get, so passionate that it couldn’t be contained, like one of her tempest bottles ready to explode. She carried it in her back, her shoulders, her scarred brow, her crinkled nose.

She stopped pacing and turned towards him. Every emotion was written on her face. So open, no hiding, he liked that about her. She was incredulous and surprised.

“So you’re giving me permission to deny… us?” she asked, her voice a little more quiet on the last word.

“Well, you can if you’d like. You don’t have to announce anything, if we have it.”

“If we have it?” She seemed so genuinely confused, a question mark now written in her brow where the anger had been. What didn’t she understand?

“If we have a…” He twirled his wrist, his hand turning palm up, palm down.

“A relationship?” 

It sounded so nice coming from her mouth instead of the Orlesian’s. 

“Yeah. That.” 

She paused, looking him in the eye as though there were something hidden there.

“Bull. What we have, I want it to be a relationship. I want it to be...something. I want people to know. That we’re together. Do you not?”

“I...What?”

“Don’t you want people to...I want people to see us together and know that we are. Together, I mean. I want people to know that I trust you and care about you and that you do that for me. I want them to see us together and know we’re something more. Especially when we’re together. Something more.”

He was speechless. They hadn’t talked much about their...relationship, hadn’t defined or set lines. He was comfortable with that, with being open, being intimate without needing intimacy. He hadn’t even realized that she had been holding back so that he could stay comfortable, stay in what he knew. How long had she wanted more from what they had?

“Bull, I wanted to be with you. Before. I wanted something but I just...didn’t know what. I...the dragon. Do you remember that first dragon?”

“The Ferelden Frostback?”

“Yes. Giant, awful beast. We killed it. All of us. Even before that, at Haven, talking to you, I wanted to go with you.I wanted to know you. So....”

She paused, getting her thoughts in order. She had to do this sometimes, think through things before they tumbled out. She policed herself in the court, articulating, being meticulous, snarky, but not usually here. Here his ears caught most of what she said and the floorboards caught what he didn’t. Nobody to judge a scatterbrained woman as she ranted. Nobody to stop her passions from pouring out as they came to her.

She walked over to him, brushing her hands on either side of his face. It was such a gentle gesture. She was so passionate, now burning embers, hot to the touch but low, so low. Focused. Tunnel vision. On him.

“When we were talking about the Qun. I wanted to get to know you. When we were fighting together. I wanted to know more about you. Who you are, the life you’ve lived, what made you who you are. We went on missions together, but it wasn’t until the dragon that I wanted something more. Your eye was so bright, you were so ecstatic, you remember us, all covered in blood and burns? And then you…”

He didn’t even have to think for a moment before responding. His lips twitched into a small smile. He remembered.

“Yeah, heat of the moment. I picked you up and…”

Now she was smiling, a small one, a memory.

“You kissed me. And I fell. Figuratively, not literally. You put me down and apologized. You didn’t ask first. It was the heat of the moment. It tasted like copper and adrenaline. I figured out that it wasn’t that I wanted to know more about you, what made you work. I just wanted...you. I wanted to be who I am with you. And it’s dumb, and I know it, and I shouldn’t argue, but when they question you, your loyalties, it feels like they’re questioning my decisions, our decisions. Who we are. Together.”

He understood a little better. Together.

“I...didn’t want that,” he started. He caught himself pausing and quickly finished, words stumbling a little bit. He hated when that happened. This room was about control, he had to hold on to it so that she wouldn’t have to. Not here. But this was important now.

“I mean, I didn’t know what that was. We didn’t have that. We were stronger as a whole, all together, the Qun. We didn’t need labels or individuals or identities. We were pieces to a whole. I didn’t need more than that.”

She was still standing in front of him. She pressed her forehead to his. She was so much shorter that she had to stand on her toes, even though he was sitting down. Where could all of that passion and energy possibly fit with such a little bottle?

“It was at the Storm Coast. With the Chargers. That choice, that’s what did it. Gat was telling me to leave them, you were telling me to call them in. You threatened to take the horn from me, you’d blow it yourself.”

She nodded slightly, the movement making his head move in tandem. 

“I wanted something then.”

“Did you get it?” her voice was low, her words tickled his skin.

“I’m not sure yet. Is that alright?” 

“Of course. So long as you’re alright with us being...together...until you figure it out.”

“Yeah. Wouldn’t have it any other way, Ka’dan.”

They stood like that for a while until she tugged his chin down so that she could kiss his forehead lightly. 

“I like it, like this,” he said softly.

“Like what?” she asked, “What do you like about this?”

“You get so focused, you know. Full of passion and emotions. You get so focused that you don’t see anything else. Tunnel vision.”

She paused before breathing out hard through her nose. Her shoulders were shaking. He worried that he had said something wrong until she threw her head back in laughter.

“Tunnel vision! Because I’m a dwarf!”

She didn’t stop laughing until all of the tension was released from her frame. She bumped her forehead on his as she started to quiet down.

“I like having you here for me to focus on,” she said back, pulling his chin up this time for a kiss on the lips. He allowed it, moving into the kiss, taking control of it.

He wasn’t really sure what he expected from this relationship. He didn’t really know what he wanted from it. But maybe it was alright just to have it. To have her. To have them.

Together.


End file.
